After OotP ripped out my heart, and DH stomped on it, I stopped writing Harry Potter fanfic, and then, eventually stopped writing any fanfic at all. But I've been going through old unfinished WIPs on my laptop, and I started trying to finish them. This one was closest to being complete, and after a few minor edits, here it is.

Author's Note: I know that wizards and witches legally come of age at seventeen, but let’s assume for the purposes of this story that the traditional age for a particular coming of age rite was younger, and that the traditional age has lingered for this rite.

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I started cheating on LiveJournal with another site (Reddit), and before I knew it, it had become a soul-sucking addiction. I kept meaning to come back to LJ, but the longer I stayed away, the more awkward it felt to come back. I knew I'd have to put in many hours of reading to catch up on my Friends' List--then weeks of reading--then months of reading. Now, I'm at the point where I can never catch up, so I won't feel bad making a half-hearted attempt to try,

I will be scrolling through my Friends' List soon. I hope to find at least a few people I know still here. If not, this could be a very lonely return.

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I can't complain; I had a very nice Christmas. We went to church Christmas Eve as my son was singing with a choir in the late-afternoon "Family Service"--that's the one with a Christmas Pageant and in which crying babies are OK--and I got to do a good deed by taking care of the children in the nursery during the 7pm service. (Husband and two kids went to that service to enjoy the music/candlelight while Daughter and I handled the nursery.)

The next morning, the kids let my husband I sleep in. (Truthfully, the teenager would have enjoyed sleeping for a few more hours.) Then my in-laws came over so we could all open gifts together and have brunch. I forgot to put the egg casserole in the oven until we'd almost finished the gifts, but everyone was nice enough not to moan, "I'm so hungry." Then after some down time, we went over to the in-laws' house for Christmas dinner. Everyone had a very pleasant day enjoying each other's company. Plus, everyone gave gifts they'd selected with thought, and the recipients all seemed grateful.

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While my family is at church, I'm at home "surfin' the internet" and discovering "must watch videos" like this one from The Thinking Atheist. (Fair warning: It's quite snarky in it's anti-religion commentary, but the evolution vs. creationism points are well presented.)

(And no, I don't spend the time my family is at church actively searching for atheist-themed videos; it's just coincidence--but a good one!)

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I was so nervous last night watching the election results that I actually threw up. No lie. Thank goodness they declared President Obama the winner before I went to bed last night, or I wouldn't have slept a wink. I wanted to do a Snoopy-esque happy dance, but my husband and I have a tacit agreement not to exult too openly when the other's candidate loses.

But I did feel like dancing in the streets, waving a rainbow flag, when I heard that not only did President Obama beat Mittens, but four states, FOUR, either voted in favor of marriage equality or voted against an amendment banning it.*

To quote Debbie in Queer as Folk: “A word of advice, my sweet Emmett - mourn the losses because they are many. But celebrate the victories because they are few.”

*Minnesota voters defeated a ballot measure that would have made marriage discrimination part of their state constitution, and voters in Maine, Maryland, and Washington voted to legalize marriage equality.

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It's Election Day here in the USA, and all over the country, people are reminding their friends and loved ones to go vote. At my house, we have a different tradition: My husband and I very carefully mention nothing about the election until after the polls close, each hoping the other will forget to vote. We have never supported the same candidate for president, and we both tend to vote along our different party lines in other elections as well.

He likes to vote on the way to work, and as I don't work on Election Day, I like to go a bit later in the morning when lines are shorter. I saw in the polling book that he'd already voted today, so my hopes--slim as they were--that he'd forget to vote were dashed.

Wouldn't it be nice if Republicans all across the country simply forgot to vote today? Yeah, I don't think it very likely either.

So many people have said that they can't wait until the day after Election Day: no more political ads on TV, no more rebo-calls from politician's campaigns, etc. I'm only looking forward to tomorrow if President Obama wins; my stomach is in knots until then.

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My teenage daughter went to a costume party tonight. (It was supposed to be last Sunday, but got postponed by the hurricane.) One of the girls went as "God's Gift to Men". She wore a large bow and a gift tag that said, "To: Men, From: God".

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We lost power--and the internet--shortly after I made my last post, and we still don't have them back. We're part of a very small, and all residential, power outage, so we're low priority for repair. We've been given estimates to get our power back ranging from this Friday to next Wednesday.

The good news is that we have relatives in the area, and they have power. We relocated this evening, and I once again have internet. Yay!

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The eye of hurricane is getting pretty close now, and trees are begining to fall. A large one just came down at my husband's office, as did one across the street from it. (We were told by a tenant in the apartment above the office.)